We have been hearing the same tired words for almost two years. "Trump is not a politician so you can't expect him to act like a politician". I have to admit, they were right. He ran one of the most brazen, offensive and insensitive campaigns for president in American history. He seemed to thrive on insulting individuals, groups and nations. He made promises, that put through any serious analysis, were obviously unachievable. Yet, remarkably, it was this gross and exaggerated behavior that made him so attractive to enough of the electorate to win him the highest office in the land. They perceived him as a welcome departure from the distrusted "Washington politicians". He spoke their language. He was their kind of people. To see this as absurd on its face, that a billionaire real estate mogul from Manhattan was their kind of people, is beside the point. He validated their xenophobia, their sense of victimization, their anti-science and anti-intellectual attitudes and their blind patriotism. He made hate and stupidity fashionable. Little did they know that slogans and speeches don't go very far in preparing you to lead America.
It is not shocking that the low information, provincial and uneducated base that elected Trump didn't understand the complex and nuanced task that faced him. It isn't even completely surprising that Trump himself didn't grasp the enormity of his new job. However, the fact that he surrounded himself with individuals who couldn't guide him through this new territory was his first, and what might prove to be his fatal mistake. The combination of his staff's inexperience and naiveté, and his need to see himself as the smartest voice in the room, have led his new administration down a path of self-destruction and his presidency into the realm of existential threat. Trump believed, and apparently still does, that the skills he brought to his business were completely applicable and transferable to the presidency. This notion has brought the Trump Presidency to the brink of abject failure. Interestingly, he has adopted the same sense of victimization as his base.
It will not come as a shock to any of you who have been reading my posts regularly that I would not be unhappy to see Trump and his band of misfits and haters fail miserably. However, his failures at leadership create dangers for our country. I don't care that he is not a politician, I do care that he is temperamentally immature, intellectually lazy and a narcissist. I believe that these characteristics have proven to make him an unfit president. I can remember no time in our history when a president has failed so miserably in every way. He has blundered in every attempt at fulfilling his legislative agenda. He has impacted only minutely on our economy. He and his family have continued to illegally profit from his high office. He has angered our allies and made us more vulnerable to our adversaries. He has proven time and again that his relationship with the truth is tenuous at best. He has failed to present himself as a moral and ethical model for us or the world. There is frankly not a single redeeming quality that I can identify in this president.
It is time to trump Trump. We the people ( though I hesitate to count myself as associated with those people who voted for him ), have made a mistake. We elected the wrong man for the job. Under normal circumstances we would be patient and hope that his damage could be contained and deal with it after four years. However, four years of Trump seems unfathomable. Look at what he has done in less than four months. It is up to us to take the lead from Trump. This is not a normal circumstance and we cannot act as though it is. We must demand that this disaster either resign or face impeachment and conviction. The presidency is not a game to fulfill a sick ego. It is deadly serious and we need a serious and capable person to fulfill the awesome responsibilities of that office.